By David Avraam: 10 years after capturing Gold at the Athens Olympics, Audley Harrison was finally given a chance at becoming ‘The Heavyweight Champion of the World’. Unfortunately for him; his opponent was the British ‘Hard Hitting’ WBA Champion David Haye. Audley’s comments of Haye “having a weak chin” and “One of my left hands is all that is needed,” just didn’t carry any weight and most fans already knew the outcome. After all the pre-fight hype was over and the first bell had rang, the fight that promised so much turned out to be as one-sided as Shere Khan and Baloo the Bears tussle from the Walt Disney’s animation ‘The Jungle Book’.
Despite not producing too great a performance; Harrison’s career may not be over?
What he needs to do now is get a convincing win under his Belt. This would no doubt regain his confidence and put him back on track and focus on achieving his dream of winning a World Title. But who should his next opponent be?
Here are five possible fighters:
1. Dereck Chisora: Despite claiming he will not take any “step aside money” to allow Klitschko to fight Haye; Chisora could find himself without an opponent for the early part of 2011. He currently holds both the British and Commonwealth Titles, and though Chisora would not have much to gain, it would give Harrison a chance to capture two domestic belts .
2. Jean Marc Mormeck: Mormeck has had three fights in the heavyweight division since moving up after his loss to David Haye at Cruiserweight. All these three opponents weighed around the 220lb mark. A bout against Audley would see him get it on with one of the heavier fighters in the Division he could use this fight as a gauge to see how he would fair against fighters of similar size to the Klitschko brothers.
3. Robert Helenius: the undefeated European Union Title holder is ranked in the top 15 and is already known for his KO power and has a TKO win over former WBO Champion Lamon Brewster. The fight would be good for both fighters; for Helenius who is relatively unknown outside of his native Finland, would generate some publicity should he beat Audley. A win for Audley would allow him to regain a version of the European Title.
4. Tyson Fury: Fury is known in the UK and this would have the potential to be a big event. Fury could be the man to finally end the career of Audley Harrison should he win; something a lot of Boxing fans have been calling for since 2006.
5. Antonio Tarver: Keen to test himself amongst the Heavyweights and hoping to win a version of the Heavyweight Crown; Tarver would see Audley as an easy opponent. He would no doubt gain experience from fighting someone with Harrison’s height and weight. Tarver known in the States as the first man to stop Roy Jones Jr, would give some publicity ‘State-Side’ if Harrison was able to pull off a win, it would also allow him to call out the names of the higher ranked fighters.
Who ever Harrison decides to fight next, it needs to be soon! He is approaching forty years of age and the Gold medal he won over 10 years ago cannot be used as a bargaining tool like it did in the early part of the last Decade. He may need to go back to fighting Eight round bouts and will definitely need to fight more than twice a year. His next fight needs to be what the Boxing fans want to see: Speed, Determination and Aggression (a lot more of the latter).
His cautious, lack luster style of fighting is not encouraging people to watch him, and is questioning his desire for Boxing glory.
His next fight will be of some interest, purely to see if he can bounces back after such decisive defeat.